You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
